Savage 99 Project

[maverick2]

I found and bought a second Savage 99 this summer (.308 featherweight, rotary mag) for a project rifle. I really like the 99's for hunting in the brush and thick timber (which represents 90% of my hunting now) and they are my favorite rifle to carry and shoulder, so this rifle will probably get the most carry time of any rifle I own from here on out. My original intent was to find a donor rifle with a solid action, and then use it as a winter project -- re-boring to a .358 Win and installing a synthetic stock that fit me better than the standard 99 does (longer length of pull and monte carlo cheek piece for use with a scope). After cleaning it up and looking closer at the rifle I picked up, it's in better shape than I thought -- the stock and bluing shows a little abuse but the action and bore are in GREAT shape. I had a few hours to burn on Friday during rainstorms, so thought I'd experiment a little and see if I could lengthen the stock with stuff I had on hand -- basically make it comfortable to shoulder and shoot, as well as enable me to move the scope far enough back to clear the rear sight and still have the right amount of eye relief. I had a Limbsaver recoil pad sitting in my stash of spare parts in the gunsafe, and an unused piece of 1/2" black UHMW from some unknown project in my past -- when put together, those 2 would add another 1 1/4 " to the length of pull which should do the trick for me. Nearly all my tools are sitting at my brother's place 200 miles away, but I did have some duct tape, a sawzall, belt sander, and construction knife, so started cutting, carving and sanding the UHMW to work as a spacer that fit between the 99's crescent shaped butt and the recoil pad, while matching the contour of the stock. When all said and done, I had a pretty good pile of UHMW left on the floor, but am pretty pleased given what I had to work with. This isn't a finished product, but the fit-up on the UHMW spacer plate went better than I thought it would, and after carving the Limbsaver a bit to match the contour of the stock, everything fits and works exceptionally well (even allowing the scope I borrowed off another rifle to fit behind the front sight). Unless I have some surprises when it comes to shooting, I think I'll carry it like this during whitetail season, and then play with it a little more this winter, adding a monte carlo cheek piece and finding the right 1-4, 1-5, or 1-6 scope to sit atop this. Will probably skip the synthetic stock altogether now, and depending on how well this shoots, may wait a while to turn it into a .358.

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[Thebear_78]

Nice work on that pad. Looks like a good game getter.


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[DrMike]

Those 99s are great rifles. You're off to a good start on turning it into what you want. I see you're keeping it as a .308 for the time being. Great cartridge. Still, for woods, nothing wrong with the .358. Great work on the pad, by the way.

 

[HAWKEYESATX]

I love Savage 99's as well. They're my all time favorite rifle. Great job on the pad!
Mine is a .308, and I wouldn't change the caliber.
I don't know if re-boring would knock the price down collector wise.

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[mjcmichigan]

May father in law loves his 99F on 308win over all his rifles. Same reasons you noted. His is a tack driver.


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[HAWKEYESATX]

They're great rifles. I love lever actions, and you don't hear about Arthur Savage's contribution much at all to the lever gun family. He was ahead of his time when he engineered the 99.

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[maverick2]

The maiden voyage to the shooting bench went pretty well. The trigger on this 99 is quite a bit better than my other 99, but still leaves a bit to be desired and is going to take some getting used to before I know how much of the scatter in my shots is rifle and how much is me. All in all though, it was pretty encouraging this AM. Will hunt this fall with factory load 165 gr Accubonds, so that's what I was shooting with. The only 3-shot group I shot measured 1.5 MOA, so I'm pretty happy. Looking forward to continued play with this.

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